San Antonio Notches a Win for Selfless Basketball

San Antonio Spurs Tim Duncan reacts on stage after beating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals Game 5 at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.

European Pressphoto Agency

This might shock you, but there were no grand lessons to be learned, no epic narratives to be completed from the San Antonio Spurs’ Sunday night Game 5 win over the Miami Heat, which gave them their fifth championship of the Tim Duncan era. Win or lose, these Spurs had their place in history sealed for a number of reasons—because Duncan is the best power forward of all-time, because Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are international stars and future Hall of Famers, because Gregg Popovich has cut more reporters down to size than a round of buyouts.

What the Spurs did in victory was much more simple: They secured a win for beautiful basketball built off selfless play, crisp passing, and a flexible philosophy that let players picked from the discard pile turn into key contributors down the stretch. Their final point differential was the largest in Finals history, meaning that a team has rarely kicked as much butt en route toward winning a title. Even if you didn’t know much about basketball, it was impossible not to look at the Spurs and appreciate their fluidity compared with Miami’s aged predictability. LeBron James could only do so much, regardless of what he says, because the Heat were built on their stars and their stars weren’t able to do much against San Antonio’s balanced attack. (This may go down as Dwyane Wade’s last hurrah, his knees turned to concrete by the end of the series.) “Not only were these Spurs numbers more impressive, they came against better competition. Consider: San Antonio went through Dirk Nowitzki, LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to get this ring,“ writes Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver. “That group includes the consensus top two players in the league in James and Durant, who together have won five of the last six MVP awards.“

In a more beautiful sense, the Spurs secured another title for a core that was supposed to be “too old“ as recently as 2008. This is longevity that’s rarely seen in professional sports, not with contracts tearing rosters apart and time reducing athleticism to mundane mortality. What the Spurs were able to do was supplant their veterans with young, potent talent, such as sharpshooter Danny Green or Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who often looked like the best player on a court that contained LeBron James. They rested players for the stretch, becoming the first team since the ABA merger to not field a single player averaging more than 30 minutes per game. They’ll enter this offseason knowing that they can keep their championship roster if everyone sticks to the plan. “This wasn’t the end on Sunday night, the fairytale’s goodbye,“ writes Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “They’re all coming back again. They’ll exhaust this run together. Four years ago, the Spurs looked done, and the Miami Heat promised to rule the NBA for years and years.“ (If they manage to make ornery Popovich get sentimental, then anything is possible.)

But it’s unsure if Miami will stick together that long, as their stars have the chance to opt out of their contracts and become free agents this summer, which would make for a very interesting offseason. This is a turning point that’ll signal whether Miami is the place they want to end their careers, or if it was merely the right place at the right time. Fortunately, Heat fans can know that the team who just beat them offers the best road map toward NBA longevity. “If there’s an argument that age can be kind to teams run properly, teams that borrow some luck and make plenty of their own … well, that argument is staring the Heat in the face,“ Tom Ziller writes for SB Nation. “The Spurs have done what faces the Heat: turning a star-laden team into a dynastic power that lasts almost two decades. With the right moves, Miami can follow San Antonio’s lead.“

Because why not keep the dream going? These Heat accomplished a lot, reaching four consecutive NBA Finals. “Not even Michael Jordan’s Bulls or Kobe Bryant’s Lakers ever did that,“ writes the Miami Herald’s Greg Cote. “And Miami, of course, won the previous two NBA titles before falling short this time. That is not failure, by any fair measure. That is success by any sane gauge.“ Whatever happens, it’ll certainly fun to watch.

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If LeBron James has had to shoulder the weight of impossible expectations, consider what it’s like for Lionel Messi. The brilliant forward has racked up loads of individual accolades, but hasn’t managed to fulfill the ultimate goal by bringing a World Cup title to Argentina, where comparisons to all-timer Diego Maradona frequently follow him. Until Sunday, Messi was scoreless in World Cups since 2006, surprising considering his ability and the amount of minutes he’s been on the pitch. That was before a devious attack that collapsed all his defenders and was rewarded with thunderous, cathartic applause from the crowd.

“The goal, and all that preceded it, was so appropriate for Messi’s story,“ writes Yahoo’s Eric Adelson. “He has given a nation more anticipation than it’s had for soccer in a generation, and the sound that greeted the sight of his face on the big screen here before the game at the Maracana was deafening. Still somehow, in all the bedlam, his vibe was of a man sitting in a pew at church.“

Argentina didn’t blow the competition away, but the opening weekend of the World Cup was a gripping one: There hasn’t been a single tie and most matches have been high scoring, which is historically rare. (Even better, it offers an easy comeback to soccer critics who say, “But they never score.“) Monday night will give Americans a chance to holler along with the ex-pats in their city, as the U.S. will face Ghana. The Black Stars have been a pain for the Americans, and with head coach Jurgen Klinsmann note entirely bullish on his team’s chance to advance far in the Cup, there’s a real sense that this game is a must-win should they want to maintain any patriotic dignity. Even so, fans might want to preach patience. “[Klinsmann is] under contract through 2018, and it’s the next World Cup, not this one, that will decide his place in American soccer history,“ Tomas Rios writes for Sports on Earth. “Seven years is an awfully short time to remake a national team that hasn’t done much of anything in 84 years, but any measure of trust in Klinsmann is something of a revolutionary act, in a culture that values itself to the point of self-harm.“ Still, it would be nice to not lose to Ghana a third straight time. The match begins at 6 p.m. EST.

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